If you could only give one brief piece of advice to a student of the game...

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It wouldn't be any of the poll options. If you need someone to advise you to watch the ball and breathe, you're already in serious trouble....

My advice to a committed, developing player would be to always remember to finish the particular stroke irrespective of the situation or circumstances which they find themselves on court. Players can often remember everything else but forget to finish particularly when they find themselves in stress positions.

So many people try to hit as hard as Federer, or put as much topspin on the ball as Nadal. We are not pros, and the more we accept our limitations the better we become at the game by not trying to smack the ball and making so many errors.

If you keep your head still but swing as fast as you can, the ball will never go in; If you work solely on footwork, but you brush up on the ball like a monster to produce a shank, you will never be consistent; Even if you slow down your stroke to negate the first two possibilities, you will expect much more to happen than can actually occur. This is why I believe knowing your limitations (which includes knowing who you can and can't beat) is the best advice in one sentence. Even if the student doesn't understand it at first, he/she will eventually get it.

FYB is awesome, and he explains things really, really well. Especially things that are not obvious to beginners, and it's free.

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He was better when he first started. In my view, the stuff that he's releasing now just has so much meaningless 'waffle', rather than getting straight to the point. Alot of what he says just seems very inane or repackaged.

Like you say, comforting for beginners who have never heard anything similar before, but not for anyone who really wants to kick on. I find his stuff extraordinarily tedious with his 'Tennis Ninja' nonsense, waffle about spending $35k in video licensing fees (who cares?), and attempts to repackage simple concepts into overly long videos. I wouldn't want him as my coach in a million years. Nothing against the guy personally but his over-emphasis on marketing and repackaging completely alienates me. And that's even taking into account the absurd pricing.

Sorry to not use the poll answers. I'd be hard pressed to pick the best as I've been given some true gems but 1 I will never forget came from a rather unexpected source. A long time ago I was playing a big jr. tournament and after an early round win I was coming off the court and a little old man, who had been watching the match, came up to me to congratulate me and say how much he admired my serve. 'One thing though', he said, 'you have the same rhythm on every serve, you should mix it up'. I said thank you and explained that I purposefully tried to have the same rhythm, same toss, continuous motion, etc, to have a good, repeatable serve as Pancho Gonzales had taught me. He said 'No, that's not what I mean. Everytime you serve you walk up to the line, bounce the ball 3 times, look up, then serve. Someone will key in on that to help them time their returns'. I said thank you and sort of dismissed it and walked away thinking 'whatever'. But later in the tournament I was involved in a close match against a player who was catching on to my serve. My service games were getting tougher. At 1 pt. I was facing break point when I remembered what the old man said. So I bounced the ball 3x, looked up, then bounced it 2 more times, then served. My opponent completely shanked the return. After that on big points I varied the bounces and nearly everytime my opponent missed the return. After that I made it a point to mix up the number of bounces before I served. I remember looking for the old man to see if he had any other little gems. Now sometimes I do forget and get burned by a good return but it is something that has not only worked for me but for many of the players of all levels that I have coached--I recently passed it on to a WTA player I work with. Ironically it also helped my return game because I learned to key in on my opponent's rituals. So you never know where you will get a tip that you will remember forever. And sometimes the best tips have nothing to do with stroke fundamentals.

Some may disagree with this, but I'd say something like "Remember, tennis is also a sport." If that's too cryptic, then what I mean is "Don't neglect your athleticism/fitness."

I think sometimes we get too hung up on grooving our strokes and technique that we neglect our physical fitness/athleticism. Tennis, like other sports, also require us to train our bodies, as obvious as that may sound.

Take a look at Murry and Fish. Murray decided to boost his fitness and Fish lost some weight and it resulted in both guys shooting through the ranks. They had better results knowing they had that extra gear to hit when it mattered.

On a more recreational level, look at pushers. These guys are usually athletic people (often times players from other sports) who win based on sheer fitness. Now imagine if these players had decent strokes and serves. For the reverse, imagine a guy with good strokes and technique, but horrid athleticism/fitness. Tell him to train/work out and I bet he'll come back hitting harder, being faster, lasting longer etc. etc.

I have a piece of advice that none of your coaches want you to find out or you wouldn't need instruction anymore. If you can do this one simple thing, you will never lose........ Win the last point of the match.